


beth

by 0fficiallyLeah



Series: changes [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Board Games, Domestic, Episode: s10e06 Ask Jeeves, F/M, Pre-Slash, Sam-Centric, Slow Burn, garge sale hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 15:02:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10310867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0fficiallyLeah/pseuds/0fficiallyLeah
Summary: Upon Sam's insistence, Dean left with Castiel after receiving a call concerning Bobby. It gave Sam time to get to know their new bunker-mate. They 'borrowed' a truck for the day and drove to Wichita thinking the college would offer more in the way of knick-knacks and other options.





	

 

Upon Sam's insistence, Dean left with Castiel after receiving a call concerning Bobby. It gave Sam time to get to know their new bunker-mate.

It had surprised Sam at how quickly Dean had taken to Beth, acting like she was an old friend rather than a new misfit to add to their collection. (One that had suddenly become empty in the last two years.) She had even joked with Dean about her room - 'Do you want me where you can keep an eye on me or where I can't easily kill you in your sleep'. Both she and Castiel had settled into the rooms across the hall. Sam wasn't surprised when Dean put Castiel in the room directly across from him. A Destiel 'cough' may have slipped out unconsciously, but they didn't seem to notice. Beth snorted at it and then looked almost as shocked as he did at the noise.

Sam and Dean had agreed that it wasn't a good idea to let Beth, or Castiel really, decorate their rooms with the artifacts in the storage rooms - at least until everything was categorized and deemed safe. So after the 'love birds' left yesterday, Sam promised Beth that today they could drive into town and go garage sale hunting.

 

††††

 

They 'borrowed' a truck for the day and drove to Wichita thinking the college would offer more in the way of knick-knacks and other options for Beth. She had asked to buy clothes as well, because 'she was a woman dammit, and she had only one outfit in Heaven, she damn well was going to have more than one down here'. Sam was inclined to agree with her, but didn't ask where the clothes she had on came from and was pretty sure he didn't want to know. They really didn't have much cash and they usually tried to not use the credit cards anywhere in Kansas, so he was glad to find she seemed to expect them to go to thrift stores, like it was only logical option - which it was.

It had gone fine, if not a bit boring for the first thing in the morning. Sam played his part, nodding off and then when she came out to check in the mirror telling her it looked good (even though she never really asked). He wasn't prepared for the sudden overwhelming memories of having done this with Jess. He seemed unable to stop himself from comparing the girl in front of him to the one in his mind, getting lost in his thoughts, and growing quiet. 

Jess had been tall and blonde, curved and tan, with beauty marks and beautiful stormy blue eyes. She had been the kind to volunteer at the animal shelter on her weekends off from waitressing, she preferred library dates to going to a club, and she fell in love with Sam because of his brain and determination to being a good student, and not because of his skill with a gun or his ability to track and kill any prey. She had loved his heart, which had been the most honest part of him in the span of their time together. With ten years gone by, he could still picture her clearly.

He had known Beth barely three days. The most he knew about her was skin deep. She was Jess' height, but her hair colored reminded him more of Bela Talbot, if not slightly darker. She had plain brown eyes with a splattering of light freckles across her nose. She didn't talk about her past, except that she was a hunter. She picked out skinny jeans and combat boots, tank tops and flannel, and surprisingly a broken record player that she insisted she could fix. At the diner for lunch, she picked a cheeseburger and onion rings instead of fries, and he was surprised when he caught himself smiling at that.

"What's with the face?"

"What?" Sam brought his napkin to wipe his face. Beth rolled her eyes.

"Not on your face. With your face. You look happy or maybe concussed?"

"How do those look the same?"

Beth shrugged, "I don't know. Haven't really seen you happy the last few years. Especially with the trials slowly killing you and you being possessed by an angel."

"How do you know that? Wait, seen?"

"Yea, Ash created,"

"You know Ash?" Sam cut her off. She gave him a look. Not a mean look, just a slightly confused one - like he should already know that. "Cas didn't tell us anything about you." He clarified.

"Right. Right, yea, I did know him. And well, upstairs, he managed to upgrade from catching Enochian sound waves on a 'laptop' to getting live shots of earth on a television. We really only tuned in for things big enough to rattle the angels, and that never failed to involve at least one out the three." She shook her head at him with a bemused smile.

"And you're okay with that? I mean you just summed it up pretty well - Winchesters are magnets for trouble. If we don't go looking for it, it'll find us. It doesn't bother you that your second chance at life could be jeopardized by us?"

"Not really." She shrugged at his confusion, "Look, all but a couple of the people I loved are upstairs. I didn't have much say in the matter. The angels thought they were being gracious but never really asked what I wanted. I wouldn't know how to do anything besides hunting, except maybe waitressing, so I'll stick with you three and hunt some evil sons of bitches as long as I can. And when my number's up again, I'll go willingly into the light." She and Sam couldn't help but laugh at the startled look on the waitress' face as she caught the tail end of the speech when she came to refill the drinks. He decided it was probably a good time to ask for the check.

"Well, between you and me, it feels nice to have a break from the bruises and the breaking of bones." Sam said.

"I can drink to that."

 

††††

 

Sam found himself actually having fun at the different garage sales. Dean and him used to do the same thing when they were years younger. They never bought anything, not really.  Sam would look over the pictures in kids’ books while Dean played with race cars. Sometimes people would give them things though. He got a stuffed animal once that smelled like pickles and Dean had got a slightly used coloring book of superheroes. It still amazed him how easily people could get rid of things like that. They had never really had things that held memories and certainly nothing that got kept. Depending on how well the hunt went, sometimes John would barge in and pack things up and drag them out. More than once unnecessary things were left behind inside motel rooms that they never returned too.

Beth seemed to have had a different kind of childhood as she excitedly went through and gathered up old family board games and other novelty items Sam always longed to have growing up. She bought less for her and more for them, promising to teach Sam the rules to games like Life and Clue, and as a joke, she bought Dean and Castiel his and hers matching blankets with sleeves. He may have scared some soccer moms with how hard he was laughing. So of course it couldn't last - garage sale hunting quickly turned into their normal kind of hunting when one of the objects for sale turned out to be haunted.

Technically it was an estate sale. The recently deceased spirit was not pleased with having his stuff sold and had been harassing people all weekend. Beth had started haggling prices on some record albums that would put Dean's cassette tape collection to shame, but when she mentioned interest in outdated tacky floral chair, he actually appeared. Seeing her fly across the room quickly became something Sam never wanted to see again.

Thankfully, it was near the end of the day, sun already having begun to set, and there was no one else besides them and the owner. Unfortunately, the only weapons they had were the gun Sam always carried and a butterfly knife Beth had hidden in her boot. Even worse news was any tools that they might've had were out in the car and the spirit, Odie Hollands, had locked all the doors. 

Beth grabbed the man's daughter and brought her to the kitchen where Sam was creating a salt circle. He needed something iron. She seemed to be thinking the same thing and dashed out of the room to grab the fire poker from the living room - the room with the ghost. 

"Where is he buried?" No answer.

"Cassidy," Sam shook her. "Where is your father buried?"

"He, He's not. He was cremated. What the hell is going on?!" He really got tired of explaining these things. He didn't have time for it now. 

"Just stay in the salt." He knew on some level she wouldn't listen. Nobody ever stays inside the salt.

He rushed back into the living room full of the man's belongings and it begun to seem like an impossible scavenger hunt. 

"Judging by the urn on the mantle I'm going to guess cremation, so what do you want to do now?"

"Torch the chair?"

"Oh, but I like that chair. Stupid ghost." She grumbled. "Fine, I'll look for matches you find the accelerant."

It turned out not to be the chair. Beth was slightly more motivated in destroying the spirit now, but it still took five more tries before they finally found the object that he was tied too. After being trapped in the house for two hours with Odie and Cassidy, who didn't stay in the salt circle (like at all), and being tossed around like dolls, they were finally able to get out of the damn house. The only silver lining was that, no matter how many times they told her it was over, Cassidy was willing to just give away the things Beth and Sam had wanted in fear that her father would come back. It was almost like getting paid.

"I'm never going to another estate sale again." Beth said as they loaded everything into the truck. 

"Agreed." 

 

††††

 

They picked up dinner on the way home, and by the time they had unpacked everything and ate, Dean and Castiel returned home. It turned out their trip had turned into hunt as well. They exchanged their stories, (shape shifters were always nasty things), over a couple of beers and then Beth gave them their presents, which actually included a book of obscure historical facts for Sam, and broke out the monopoly board - it turned out they all weren't as tired as they thought. 

This wasn't the life Sam wanted ten years ago, it was definitely something he never pictured, but sometimes things change, and despite everything that's happened, he's starting to think not all change has to be bad.

 


End file.
